DOC’s Kitchen Table Talks is back—this time as a panel discussion! The topic of this year’s session will be Too Hot to Handle: Pathways to Alternative Distribution. The session will feature a one-hour moderated discussion, followed by an open-format conversation for members.
The panel discussion will be moderated by Julian Carrington, Managing Director of the Racial Equity Media Collective.
*Stay tune for more information on the panelists*
Join us and make your voices heard!
DOC invites documentary creators nationwide to join us for cross-country consultations, with an the last stop in Toronto, Ontario!
In collaboration with DOC Ontario, we’re hosting a community consultation in Toronto to gather valuable insights and perspectives from local filmmakers.
**Please let us know if you require ASL interpretation to fully participate by March 7th by emailing operations@docorg.ca**
🗓 When: Wednesday, March 12th, 2025
🕓 What time: 4:00pm to 8:00pm EDT
📍 Where: Centre for Social Innovation – Spadina; 192 Spadina Ave., Toronto, ON M5T 2C2.
Be sure to add the event to your calendar so that you don’t forget!
This session is open to all documentary makers. Complimentary dinner and refreshments will be served. 😊 Please indicate any dietary restrictions when you register.
DOC’s Ontario consultation in Toronto is key to our National initiative to hear directly from doc-makers in Ontario about how the seismic shifts in our industry are impacting your ability to create and disseminate your stories. At this crucial moment, the CRTC is in the process of deciding how to implement the Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11), which will shape how we work with streamers and broadcasters for the foreseeable future. Federal institutions are rethinking how they support development, production, distribution and discoverability of our content, and festivals and funders are having to rethink their models. There has never been a more crucial time to make your voices heard.
DOC’s cross-country consultations are taking place in collaboration with all six DOC Chapters over the course of this Fall and Winter. These discussions will help guide DOC’s advocacy efforts in the coming years, covering key issues that matter most to our community.
Thank you to the Canada Media Fund for their generous support in making these vital grassroots conversations with our members possible!
Stick around after the session for an industry social! 📍 Location TBD!
Join us for a chance to network and unwind with fellow industry professionals
Join us and make your voices heard!
DOC invites documentary creators nationwide to join us for cross-country consultations, with an upcoming stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia!
In collaboration with DOC Atlantic, we’re hosting a community consultation in Halifax to gather valuable insights and perspectives from local filmmakers.
**Please let us know if you require ASL interpretation to fully participate by February 20th by emailing operations@docorg.ca**
🗓 When: Thursday, February 27th
🕓 What time: 4:00pm to 8:00pm
📍 Where: Lighthouse Centre, at 1800 Argyle St, Halifax, NS B3J 3N8
Be sure to add the event to your calendar so that you don’t forget!
This session is open to all documentary makers. Complimentary dinner and refreshments will be served. 😊 Please indicate any dietary restrictions when you register.
DOC’s Atlantic consultation in Halifax is key to our National initiative to hear directly from doc-makers in the Atlantic region about how the seismic shifts in our industry are impacting your ability to create and disseminate your stories. At this crucial moment, the CRTC is in the process of deciding how to implement the Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11), which will shape how we work with streamers and broadcasters for the foreseeable future. Federal institutions are rethinking how they support development, production, distribution and discoverability of our content, and festivals and funders are having to rethink their models. There has never been a more crucial time to make your voices heard.
DOC’s cross-country consultations are taking place in collaboration with all six DOC Chapters over the course of this Fall and Winter. These discussions will help guide DOC’s advocacy efforts in the coming years, covering key issues that matter most to our community.
Thank you to the Canada Media Fund for their generous support in making these vital grassroots conversations with our members possible!
Stick around after the session for an industry social at Durty Nelly’s Irish Pub, 1645 Argyle St, Halifax, NS B3J 2B5.
Join us for a chance to network and unwind with fellow industry professionals
Join us and make your voices heard!
DOC invites documentary creators nationwide to join us for cross-country consultations, with an upcoming stop in Edmonton, Alberta!
In collaboration with DOC Alberta, we’re hosting a community consultation in Edmonton to gather valuable insights and perspectives from local filmmakers.
**Please let us know if you require ASL interpretation to fully participate by November 30 by emailing operations@docorg.ca**
📅 When: Monday, December 9th
🕓 What time: 4:00pm to 8:00pm
📍 Where: Performance Space, CKUA Radio Network; 9804 Jasper Ave, Edmonton, AB T5J 0C5
This session is open to all documentary makers. Complimentary lunch and refreshments will be served. 😊 Please indicate any dietary restrictions when you register.
DOC’s AB consultation in Edmonton is key to our National initiative to hear directly from doc-makers in Alberta about how the seismic shifts in our industry are impacting your ability to create and disseminate your stories. At this crucial moment, the CRTC is in the process of deciding how to implement the Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11), which will shape how we work with streamers and broadcasters for the foreseeable future. Federal institutions are rethinking how they support development, production, distribution and discoverability of our content, and festivals and funders are having to rethink their models. There has never been a more crucial time to make your voices heard.
DOC’s cross-country consultations are taking place in collaboration with all six DOC Chapters over the course of this Fall and Winter. These discussions will help guide DOC’s advocacy efforts in the coming years, covering key issues that matter most to our community.
Thank you to the Canada Media Fund for their generous support in making these vital grassroots conversations with our members possible!
Stick around after the session for an industry social at The Sherlock Holmes Pub Downtown! Located at 10012 101A Ave, Edmonton, AB T5J 3Z1.
Join us for a chance to network and unwind with fellow industry professionals
DOC Northwest is proud to support and collaborate with VIFF in hosting an industry panel focusing on Rethinking Documentary Marketing.
👉with PR expert Nicola Pender, Executive Director Sue Biely, and award-winning storyteller Sarain Fox, sharing three marketing pathways to raising the profile of documentary films. Moderated by Kevin Eastwood, DOC Northwest.
Join us with an Artist & Industry Pass
DOC welcomes Telefilm to talk about coproduction for documentary films with a focus on specific areas of flexibility for docs.
The event will be available in both English and French
Please note that this event will be available to DOC members only. For this reason the zoom link is available on the DOC National Webinars page.
DOC welcomes representatives from the Canada Media Fund to present changes to their 2024/2025 guidelines that have an impact on documentary production.
This event will be available to DOC members only. For this reason the zoom link is available on the DOC member benefits page.
DOC’s session as part of Hot Docs 2024 Industry Conference and Market
Info:
The Documentary Organization of Canada begins its 41st year in the midst of some seismic shifts across our sector: massive cutbacks at Canadian broadcasters and American streamers, restructuring at the NFB, the explosion of artificial intelligence, and a complete overhaul of Canada’s audiovisual policy. All under the shadow of a federal election in fall 2025. Needless to say, there is the potential to get an enormous amount done over the next year and a half. Join DOC’s Executive Director Sarah Spring for a roundup of DOC’s advocacy work and everything documentary-policy related.
DOC Institute’s Meet the Funder series is back!
Join DOC Institue for a virtual conversation with Natasha Negrea (Head of Programming) and Alexandra Roberts (Commissioning Editor, Documentaries Programming and Content).
The session will be free to attend. Stay tuned for registration details!
📅 Wednesday, February 21st
🕒 5:00pm ET
📍 ZOOM
The DOC Hour will provide an opportunity for an intergenerational conversation on the topic of transformations in the Canadian and Quebec documentary world since DOC was founded in 1983. We’ll look back over four decades of DOC’s tireless efforts to preserve the vitality, funding and accessibility of documentaries in our society.
We’d like to mark this anniversary by reflecting on our history and looking to the future. We salute the growing diversity of our community, take stock of our challenges and celebrate our successes.
The panel will begin with an overview of the “Getting Real/Toute la vérité” report on the decline in funding for documentary production in Canada.
The Documentary Organization of Canada welcomes all to this no-charge event to help us celebrate our 40th Anniversary as an organization and the massive impact we have had in the documentary community for decades.
This “All Are Welcome” event will feature food, beverages, music, and plenty of networking time with a small interlude for a speaking panel made up of veteran producer and director, Connie Edwards (also former DOC National Board Chair) and emerging documentary writer and director Omar Mouallem, moderated by DOC Alberta Board Chair, Kelly Wolfert. The panel will reflect on how far DOC has come in 40 years, its impact in the community, and how, as the major voice for documentary across Canada, we are the organization best able to assist those starting out in the documentary industry.
After the panel, we will all be able to connect again and network. This event is perfect for experienced creators and DOC members to celebrate our successes over the past 40 years but it is an amazing opportunity for film/tv students, independent creators, emerging filmmakers, and scripted crew and technicians alike to meet and create lasting relationships.
DOC Members will receive 1 complimentary drink ticket with registration.
If you are interested in becoming a DOC Member head to docorg.ca/join-doc. DOC is currently offering a free two year membership to all new members that identify as BIPOC.
At the height of a dramatic reconfiguration of Canada’s film and television funding, the Documentary Organization of Canada releases a major report on the state of documentary production in this country. In this session, DOC will share their findings for the first time, and explain why this latest edition of their “Getting Real” reports could be a game-changer for documentary filmmakers.
The panel will feature Kadon Douglas, Executive Director of BIPOC TV & Film, Owen Sherman, Senior Analyst at Nordicity, and Sarah Spring, Executive Director of DOC. The event will feature a special presentation by Mehernaz Lentin, National Director of Feature Film, Telefilm Canada.
Please note that access is limited to TIFF Industry and Conference passholders.
Thank you to our generous partners who have sponsored Getting Real 7!
DOC is extremely grateful to Nordicity for creating this report
DOC will be present at Gimli International Film Festival!
Growing from DOC’s wonderful meetings with local filmmakers at the Available Light Film Festival this past winter, DOC is looking forward to hear from Manitoba doc-makers as part of DOC’s Strategic Goal to connect with and work to strengthen local Chapters. In this session, DOC National Executive Director Sarah Spring will receive feedback from documentary filmmakers in Manitoba. This will be an opportunity to share ways that DOC National can better serve the documentary sector in the region as DOC shapes the next round of National programs to support filmmakers.
DOC will be present at Gimli International Film Festival!
Growing from our wonderful meetings with local filmmakers at the Available Light Film Festival this past winter, attending Gimli to connect with Manitoba doc-makers is part of DOC’s Strategic Goal to connect with and work to strengthen our local Chapters.
DOC’s principal mandate is to advocate on behalf of documentary creators for a sustainable, equitable, inclusive, fair and functional film industry. This discussion aims to ensure that filmmakers in Manitoba are informed of Federal Policy changes that affect them at ground zero, such as Bill C-11 and changes on the horizon for the cultural funds from Heritage Canada. This discussion will also be led by Joy Loewen, CEO of National Screen Institute
About the National Screen Institute – Canada (NSI)
Propelled by a visionary network of donors, private and public organizations, board members
and staff, the National Screen Institute supports creators from across Canada to tell
unforgettable stories. Through industry-informed training and mentoring in film, television
and digital media, students and alumni find their voice and place on the global stage,
inspiring us to shape a better world.
We are committed to training participants from a diverse community of voices including
Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or
questioning and two-spirit (LGBTQ2S+), people with disabilities, those outside large urban
centres, those from regional and remote areas and various religious groups.
The Documentary Organization of Canada Atlantic Chapter has partnered with the Lunenburg DOC Fest and DOCTalks Festival & Symposium to present a series of nine conversations in 2023. The next three conversations will take you deeper into the world of Community Engagement & Alternative Distribution.
Hundreds of documentary films are pitched to broadcasters each year, but most do not receive a CRTC regulator broadcast-streaming license and/or government film agency funding. This lack of access to financing and distribution has led many independent producers to engage with community partners to create, finance and distribute their documentary films using a cross-sector approach. Join us in June as we present three documentary media conversations: i) Collaborating in a Community of Creators, ii) Producing Social Impact Films, and iii) Alternative Distribution in Canada.
Alternative Distribution in Canada
Becky Tennyson and Patrick Watt manage two non-profit, CRTC regulated, community TV stations that collectively reach an estimated 800,000 households across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Canada. They will share information about their community TV stations and a new documentary film strand being planned called DOCTalks Presents.
Florence Lamothe and Naomie Decarie are with Tënk, a not-for-profit, independent subscription-based streaming platform, dedicated to the promotion of documentary cinema, and available online across Canada. It was launched in Quebec in February 2020 and they will discuss Tënk’s mission and operations.
